The Bottom Line
Hilton HHonors rewards program is a great option for business travelers. With the broad range of Hilton hotels and locations around the world, as well as extensive options for earning and redeeming points, Hilton HHonors is worth signing up for.
Pros
- Over 3,500 participating hotels worldwide
- 50 airline partners
- Ability to transfer miles to family, friends, or charitable organizations
- Multiple credit card partners
- Multiple membership levels good for frequent traveler
Cons
- Once you make a reservation you need to print out and bring your reward confirmation ID with you.
Description
- Can earn both miles and points for stays.
- Customizable Double Dip earnings options. Earn both HHonors points and airline miles (or extra HHonors points).
- Airline miles can be based on a flat rate or on the dollar amount spent (for people that stay for longer periods).
- Membership level is determined by stay activity. VIP levels are reached with more stays or longer stays.
- For example, silver VIP requires four stays or ten nights within one year, and provides a 15% bonus and other rewards.
- HHonors offers a wide range of rewards.
- Rewards include hotels, golf, car rentals, cruises, entertainment parks, shopping, dining, and experience rewards.
Guide Review - A Review of the Hilton HHonors Rewards Program
Signing Up:
Like most travel programs, signing up for Hilton HHonors is easy. Just visit the website, create a user name and password, and select your contact options. After that, you’ll receive an email with membership details and program information. Once you have your account, you’ll want to set up your Double Dip earnings style by choosing to earn either extra HHonors points per stay, or a variable or fixed amount of airline miles.
Earning Points:
HHonors gives business travelers lots of ways to earn points. The most basic is simply by staying at Hilton (or one of the Hilton family) hotels. Travelers can earn points at over 3,500 Hilton hotels.
The program also features a Double Dip feature, which allows travelers to both earn HHonors points, as well as airline miles, in either a fixed or variable amount. For example, with fixed airline miles you can earn up to 500 miles per stay, while variable miles provide one mile for each dollar spent.
The basic rate is 10 points for each eligible U.S. dollar charged to your room for stays at all participating Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, and Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Grand Vacations Club hotels.
Travelers can also earn HHonors points in a number of other ways, including car rentals, credit cards, cellular services, shopping, dining, and even rail travel. For example, car rentals (Alamo, Avis, Budget, Europcar, National, Sixt, and Thrifty) can earn points, although you may need to stay at a Hilton hotel to accrue car rental points.
Redeeming Points:
The program also gives business travelers plenty of ways to redeem points, from the usual hotel stays to special experience rewards.
Redeeming points is easy. Simply visit the HHonors Rewards page, select the reward category (hotels, experience rewards, gold rewards, car rentals, cruises, entertainment parks, or shopping & dining). From there, the website will detail your options. For example, standard hotel rewards are divided into different categories based on the type of hotel you want to stay at. Rewards start at 7,500 points for basic hotels in category one up to 50,000 points for hotels in category seven. Special hotels like the Waldorf Astoria brand have high season and low season options.
VIP-level members can also take advantage of VIP-only rewards.
Once you’ve booked your reward, HHonors will send you a reward certificate and ID number. You’ll need to print out that certificate and present it at check in or when you use your reward.
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